


An Analysis of Pansy Parkinson

by therearenobananasinthesky



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-07
Updated: 2020-03-07
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:20:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23045419
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/therearenobananasinthesky/pseuds/therearenobananasinthesky
Summary: A character analysis of Pansy Parkinson, as she should have been written. Joanne Kathleen Rowling needs to step it up and give Slytherins the love they deserve.I honestly think that Pansy could have been a really interesting and complex character if she had been fleshed out. This is my attempt at doing that.
Relationships: Daphne Greengrass & Pansy Parkinson, Draco Malfoy & Pansy Parkinson, Draco Malfoy & Theodore Nott & Pansy Parkinson & Blaise Zabini, Millicent Bulstrode & Pansy Parkinson
Kudos: 19





	An Analysis of Pansy Parkinson

Pansy Parkinson had grown up with the idea that her family was the smart ones. The neutral ones. By not taking a side, that they were somehow protecting themselves from either side’s wrath. 

She’s in her first year at Hogwarts when she begins to question that.

Of course, she recognizes that it’s the most Slytherin thing to do, to protect yourself, it defines her family. Parkinson’s are grey, they stay in the shadows, not taking sides. It’s the most Slytherin thing she can think of. 

But her new friends disagree.

Draco, and Blaise, and Theo, they all come from dark-aligned families. They tell her that to be a Slytherin you take what’s yours, you protect the gift given to you from Mudbloods. But her dorm mate Tracey is a Muggleborn, and she seems all right, so she kind of dismisses them. They’re only eleven, they don’t get hung up on it for long.

She still thinks neutral was the way to go in the War.

It’s in her fourth year, when Harry Potter comes out of the maze sobbing, clutching Cedric’s dead body, that she really starts to doubt that. The ministry is quick to dismiss his death as nothing more than an obstacle in the maze, but Pansy’s read her books, she paid attention during Moody’s practical demonstration. There was no visible wound- Diggory was hit by the killing curse. She’s not sure that someone willing to kill a child simply for being in the way shouldn’t be fought against as her parents told her.

In her fifth year, she reads the daily prophet reports, how this witch or that muggle has gone missing. 

She doesn’t write it off like most in her house does.

Pansy believes Harry, even if she doesn’t trust Dumbledore. There is no doubt that Voldemort is back.

In her sixth year, Draco comes into their compartment bragging about this grand task the Dark Lord had given him to do. Blaise and Theo and the oafs drink it all in, but she’s absolutely disgusted. “You can’t seriously believe that he’s looking out for us, right? He just wants to control people, and he does that through fear!” There’s silence. She turns around and walks right out of the compartment. No need to be friends with them if they were going to support a fascist.

For the first time in six years, she has more friends that are girls than boys. 

The other girls in her dorm, Daphne and Tracey and Millicent, all welcome her with surprisingly open arms.

It’s about six months later when she walks past Myrtle’s bathroom and she hears crying. Most would say it’s Myrtle, but she knows that voice.

She’d know it anywhere.

It’s Draco.

She knew he’d come around eventually.

They rekindle their friendship and he tells her everything: how his dad failed to retrieve a prophecy, how the Dark Lord is punishing his family by making Draco kill Dumbledore. How this is just setting him up for failure, because how can a 16-year-old boy do what the greatest, most terrible wizard failed to do? That is the day Pansy Parkinson swears that she will destroy Voldemort if it’s the last thing she does.

Tracey doesn’t return for their seventh year.

On the first day of Herbology, Sprout tells them that she’s assigning them groups, each with one person from each house, to “foster inter-house unity”. In her group is Macmillan, Goldstein, and Lavender Brown. A week later, when Pansy comes in crying, Macmillan sneers, “What, your friend Davis out hunting Muggles with the death eaters? Do you miss her?”

Pansy looks up at them with red-rimmed eyes, “Don’t you know that Tracey was a Muggleborn? She’s fled the country after her parents were killed.”

That’s the day that her group puts aside their prejudices against Slytherins. It’s also the day that Pansy starts hanging out with the rebellious Gryffindors.

Pansy is the first Slytherin in Dumbledore’s Army. She’s the one who suggests they research spells from their individual cultures, to look for the things the Carrows would overlook. She’s the one who figures out how to use the Room of Requirement to access the books the Carrows banned, ones about Muggles and cultures outside of Britain.

She works in quiet ways. While the Gryffindors will loudly refuse to bow down to the new rules and curriculum, Pansy’s rallying the house elves. Figuring ways to modify Granger’s galleons to communicate more than dates. With Flitwick’s and McGonagall’s help, she creates a group of notebooks that can communicate with each other, but to those without access, it looks like a normal, non-incriminating diary.

McGonagall tells her they’d be extremely helpful “in the real world”. It’s not hard to decipher that code.

On May 2nd, they’re all gathered in the Great Hall, and the Slytherins cheer just as hard as everyone else when McGonagall tells them Snape left. The sixth and seventh years are preparing to fight, to defend their home when a cold voice tells them to give up Harry Potter. Give him up and they’ll be rewarded.

On the one hand, she wants to scream, to tell someone to grab him, so they can all be kept safe. But she knows they won’t follow through with that promise. They can’t be trusted.

“They must be out of their goddamn minds,” she spat, “if they think we’re just going to hand over our classmate just because some madman up on his high horse thinks it’s in our best interest.”

The crowd erupts into cheers. Professor McGonagall smiles, “Thank you, Miss Parkinson”. Pansy glows with the approval in her voice.

Pansy is there when Potter kills Voldemort. His body thunks on the ground. It’s final. The dark lord is finally dead. 

Pansy Parkinson is 18 when she enters her 8th year, to make amends and to finish her education. 

All years have to repeat whatever they were last year. The first-year class is double the size. No one mentions that it’s still the smallest class on record. 

Pansy Parkinson is in her eighth year when she finally reconciles with her classmates, and more importantly, with herself.


End file.
